MIKEY MUSIC

For those of you who saw and dug the movie “The Music Lovers” and are planning to pick up the soundtrack of the movie – be forewarned … the album is a rip-off. The album has “Original Sound Track” and it’s on the United Artists label UAS-5217 and apparently there’s a few people in town who think that the cover is a bit misleading.

Bill Cook is one such person. He saw the movie, got off on the music and decided to buy the album. It was the first record of classical music he has bought. I hope it won’t be his last, but he certainly hasn’t too much luck with this one. According to Bill, there’s a section in the movie when the Piano Concerto in D Minor accompanies the action for about fifteen to twenty minutes. The cut is on the record, but it is edited down to seven minutes, or just half of the original. The movie is mostly music for its 140 minute entirely, but the album only has around a third, or forty-five minutes of the movie. How can you tell what they’ve cut out when most of the cuts are edited right of the picture. You can’t, and that’s why this album is a bit of a bummer. Mr. Cook spoke to predictable A&B Sound about the album, and they said that they had received a few complaints about the record, but that they would continue to sell it complaints or not. Anything for the buck.

So Bill decided to find out about the album’s trips through town. According to A&B, the record was distributed to them by an outfit called “Pro Sound,” which does the United Artists rack jobbing. Bill phoned the number and lo and behold he reached Kelly-Deyong who, yes, distributed the record. The secretary at Kelly-Deyong told Bill that they get their stuff from Johnson Appliances which I already knew was the MCA outlet in town.

And what can you expect from MCA?

Nothing.

So Bill Cook is left with this record he’s not too pleased with (which brings up the question: Why can’t people hear the records before they buy them? That would eliminate the guesswork about cuts, surface noise and everything else. Unfortunately it would probably cut into precious overheard costs … The Record Gallery on Robson will let you audit a record, but their prices are the highest in Vancouver) and the only thing left for him to do is write to United Artists in the States and complain. Nothing will happen, but at least he’ll feel a little better. If anyone else has bought the disc and feels ripped off, why don’t you write also? The address is United Artists Records, 729 8th Ave., New York, NY 10019.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I don’t know how true this is or anything, but there have been stories floating around, if you know what I mean. Apparently some of the people out at Vancouver City College at Langara were slightly blasted last Thursday evening. It seems that some weird freaks have somehow managed a show on the campus radio station CKLA. The person I gained this information from was still rather blasted from being exposed for a few minutes last Thursday, but managed to remain coherent enough to mumble something about the two new jocks being kind of duo called Stone Rapp and Major Hitt. He couldn’t classify their insane ramblings at all, but did mention something about “totally unpredictable.”

So I phoned CKLA and, sure enough, they do have two jocks called Stone and the Major. They’ve got a weird show every Monday and Thursday night from five-thirty to seven-thirty and apparently it’s really nutzy. Unfortunately if you want to hear some really free-form radio, you have to go all the way to Langara. Oh well, maybe they’ll get a transmitter.